Seven Days in Purgatory
by M.orbid Decay
Summary: You never hurt the ones you love, and I – Anzu Mazaki – love no one.' It took seven days to create the world, and it will take seven days to undo it. Seven days to save yourself and seven to prepare for the beginning of the end. [Religious undertones]
1. The Beginning

_Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor do I claim to be making any money off of this work. It is only for my amusement and the enjoyment of others._

**Seven Days In Purgatory: Prologue – The Beginning **

-begin-

What do you do when you've escaped damnation, eternal suffering and pain, and the horrors of the levels of Hell?

Where do you go to repent and confess, to wash away the petty sins of a unclean existence?

Purgatory… from the word purgare, Latin meaning 'to make clean, purify.' Quite fitting for a sorrowful place, where you hope that you will cleanse yourself before Judgment Day and will be able to enter Heaven's Gates.

Purgatory – a religious lie.

The true Purgatory lies not on another plane, but on this desecrate land, this unholy world. Tell me, what do the beings do, when they are supposed to be praying for Salvation? They dig their own grave in Hell.

I have seen this happen, and I have seen great men fall because of it.

I have consecrated myself to be the sacrifice that the Heavens will use to bring about the Judgment.

You never hurt the ones you love, and I – Anzu Mazaki – love no one.

Let the games begin.

-fin-

_The religious aspect of this was not made to offend anyone, so please do not take it that way. It is simply the most effective way of conveying the story to you. If you like, please review._


	2. The First Day

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor do I claim to be making any money off this work. It is only for my amusement and the enjoyment of others. Nor do I claim to be an expert on religion; I'm twisting this and probably sentencing myself to Hell for it.

Seven Days In Purgatory: Chapter One – The First Day 

-

It took seven days to create the world, seven to be rid of Eden, and it will take seven days to end it.

All of these misfortunes… No wonder seven is an unholy number.

God, an embodiment of all things masculine, created the world, so it's only natural that it would be a woman to destroy it. A woman left the paradise Eden to dance with the serpent and fall under its spell. Satan must be a woman, because it must balance out the divine scales.

And so it happens, the two evils coincide together perfectly. After all, it is only women would have a seven-day cycle.

-

Anzu Mazaki sighed to herself, taking the drink that had been offered to her. She faintly heard the 'This one's on me' murmured by the bartender, a scantily clad blonde. She fingered the glass, idly wondering what time it was. She really should be getting home; it had to be past midnight. She took a sip of the drink, wincing slightly at the sweetness of the daiquiri. Placing the drink back down, she thought about the next day. She really should go home, she had work tomorrow, and she really couldn't miss it. It was the only thing keeping food in her mouth and a roof over her head. The store manager had already threatened to fire her is she missed work again, but Anzu wondered if she could come in late and cover the next shift.

She snorted and forced herself to take a drink of the too sweet daiquiri. That wouldn't go over well. The bartender came and collected the empty glass and the meager tip as Anzu abruptly stood up and shrugged on her worn coat.

When she reached the dimly lit street she rolled her eyes, dawn was nearly there. She shoved her hands in her pockets and tried to ignore her burning throat and the way men looked at her, admiring her barely clad ass. She nearly snarled in disgust, men were filthy creatures. True, she was wearing a very short micromini and a face painted with makeup, but she found that it wasn't an excuse for men old enough to be her grandfather to be leering at her.

She turned a corner and produced a small key, rusted with age, and shoved it into a door that looked like it could fall in at any moment. It took a struggle with the old lock and her shoulder pushing against the door a few times before it would finally open, before she could enter the confines of her dingy apartment. The room smelled of old smoke and puke, and the small candle in the corner of the room did nothing to cover the smell, only adding its own putrid scent to the mix.

She landed on the old mattress, wincing as she felt a metal spring in her side. The graying blanket got caught on the coil, adding another rip to the growing collection. She sighed and thought back to her teen years. Whatever happened to her delusions of grandeur, of dancing in New York, of living with her then boyfriend Yuugi?

Well, her dreams of living with the other teen were shattered when she walked in on his yami and him fucking. Yami had seen her and he had had the audacity to give her a wink and a laugh before leaning down to capture Yuugi's lips and heart once more.

She should have known – yami and hikari pairs were meant to be together. It was the same with Ryou and his yami, although Yami no Bakura had been known to be more violent when it came to other people bumping into or otherwise looking the wrong way at his host. However, as she all too well knew, Ryou was completely smitten with his yami's possessiveness and loved every minute of him.

Malik and his… well, whatever the hell Marik was, were no different, only the insane creature had not come from a Sennen Item, but instead from Malik's own hate. However that worked, Malik and Marik were happily tromping around scaring the shit out of the people of Domino, Japan.

She glared at a stain in the carpet, willing it to go away. Wishing for something to take her mind off of everything. She got up and stumbled into her barely there bathroom and opened up the medicine cabinet, whose door had looked like it had seen many fists flying into it, and popped open a bottle of sleeping pills. Taking enough to knock her out for a week, and possibly kill her, she stalked back into the bedroom and fell on the bed again, this time ignoring the metal coil in her side. It hurt a lot less than most of the things in her life, she decided, wearily drifting off into a not so blissful sleep.

-

_Rire. Éclaboussure. Voix. _

_"Anzu, mon chéri, regard au lac! N'est-il pas simplement magnifique? Le coucher du soleil se reflète outre de lui admirablement" _

_"Oui, mama, il est vraiment joli" _

_Une autre éclaboussure. _

_"Enfant, se rappellent, même après que je suis allé, je sera toujours avec vous. Je toujours vous observerai et prendrai soin de vous. Ne vous inquiétez pas, mon enfant, pour moi suis toujours ici." _

_Un enfant pleurant. _

_"Mama! Mama! Veuillez ne pas me laisser" _

_Une lutte. _

_"rappelez-vous l'enfant, je suis toujours avec vous. Je suis toujours avec vous... que je suis toujours... " _

_Sanglots désespérés. _

_"Mama..." _

_'Je suis toujours avec vous... '_

-

Anzu sat up quickly, a cold sweat visible on her skin. That dream…that memory? Was it a memory? She didn't even know anymore. It seemed familiar, but was it her memory or a figment of her imagination? She shook slightly, before gathering herself up and looking at the blinking digital clock. 12:00 AM, it read. She wondered the date, wondered how long she had been out. She flipped the black and white television onto some midmorning news broadcast and sighed nearly happily when she saw that it was just the next day. She knew for certain that she was going to be fired when she got back to work. She wondered if she should just call in to tell the boss she had been sick the past few days, just to get him off her back.

Huh, as if. Hiroto was such a hardass, never letting her have any days off. She decided to just call in and tell him she had decided to quit. Yeah, good plan. If she could only convince herself that she didn't need the money. Damn it, there goes that plan. She decided she'd go in and talk to him, but she wouldn't reduce herself to begging for the job. It wasn't _that_ important to her.

She stared at the ceiling, wondering what had woken her up.

-

_Hope you liked it. I also hope you don't see Anzu as the friendship do-gooder that most portray her as (not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm hoping to get seven chapters for this story, one for each day plus prologue. If you'd take the time, please review! _

_Eheh, please don't judge me on my non-existant french skills. I just stuck the dream sequence into the Google translator and hoped to whatever deity exists that it would translate right. I'm not going to provide a translation right now, because all will be revealed in due time. But if you really want to, I suppose you could translate it yourself, but you'd need to wade through the mess. Sorry!_


	3. The Second Day

_DojomistressAmbyChan- Heh, I'm not even taking French. I've just finished my second year of Latin, so y'know. That's why it translates out so badly._

_Miss -tress- Kitty- It is AU , sorry for any confusion. And no, it's not being abandoned, I've just had a massive writer's block lately. Thank you for your input!_

_Okay, so I haven't updated in a while, forgive me._

_Once again, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor am I making any money off this work._

_Enjoy_

**Seven Days in Purgatory: Chapter Two – The Second Day**

"Damn, girl, I haven't seen you in forever! How've you been?"

Anzu stared at the woman in front of her, debating whether to answer her or not.

"I've been good. How have you been, Mai?"

"I'm getting by." Mai flipped her hair back, clad in a pair of loose jeans and a maternity shirt.

Anzu wondered if she was pregnant. The other woman quickly answered her thoughts.

"I'm not so sure how I'm gonna get by with a baby, but I'll manage." She flashed a quick smile. "What have you been up to all these years?" The unspoken question loomed above them: Has anyone done anything to you?

"Ah, a lot of things. Want to talk over coffee?" Anzu mentally winced as she heard herself speak those words, trying to figure out her motives.

"Sure, that'd be nice." Anzu saw a flicker of sadness in Mai's eyes, but then it was gone just as quickly, replaced with a bright smile. How long had it been since Mai had really talked with some one?

They walked to the cheapest coffee place, a unanimous decision that they had so easily slipped into.

The café smelled of cheap coffee, cheap drugs, and even cheaper women. Anzu curled her lip in disgust and Mai looked uncomfortable, placing a hand on her belly.

They got a table in a corner and Anzu asked the other woman what she wanted. Mia dug around in her purse and pushed a couple dollars into Anzu's hands. "Just a bottle of water…" She murmured quickly, adverting her eyes.

Anzu nodded, realizing that Mai didn't trust this place very much, and Anzu had to agree. She sighed as she got up to the counter and asked for two bottles of water. The man at the counter leered at her and chuckled.

"Two dollars, ma'am." He said, a glint shining maliciously in his eyes. Anzu gave him Mai's two dollars and quickly grabbed the bottles. When she returned to the table she handed Mai her bottle of water and a one-dollar bill out of her wallet.

The blonde who was once brimming with confidence looked wilted, defeated, while staring out into space.

"Mai?" Anzu said softly, breaking the woman out of her reverie.

"Huh? Oh… I'm sorry. I guess I got distracted." She looked down at her hands.

"It's okay…" Anzu murmured in reply. "So… How've you been?"

Mai gave her a bitter smile. "I'm getting by. Barely, but I'm still making it. Things aren't the same as they used to be…" She laughed. "Sometimes I wish I could turn the clock back and pause it on the moments everything was really okay, you know?"

"Yeah, I do know. Let's just say that the 'friendship' group broke apart. Oh, but I suppose that such is life."

Mai glanced past her. "What happened?"

"Yuugi and I had been going out for about a year… I had a key to his apartment – he moved out of the Kame Game Shop when his grandpa died. I had been away at a dance recital in Tokyo and had gotten home early. I was going to surprise him, but when I walked in I heard noises in his bedroom…"

Anzu cleared her throat and looked down at her hands. "He was with Yami. I should have known. I thought it would be different somehow… That he wouldn't want Yami when he was with me."

Mai bit her lip. "You couldn't have known…"

Anzu chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah… I suppose. But I did know it was happening, I saw it with all the other hikaris."

She took a sip of her water bottle, winced and put the cap back on. It smelt heavily of smoke. Mai looked somewhat surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. Ryou's yami has changed for him; he's positively intoxicated with the light. It's funny, Bakura has killed for him, and Ryou doesn't even care." She rolled her eyes. "Malik and Marik are all over Domino, scaring everyone and I'm not even sure how their relationship works. It brings narcissism to a whole new level."

She sighed and looked out the window. "So, what have you been up to, really?"

Mai frowned. "Well, besides getting raped?" She grimaced at her words. "I apologize. I didn't mean to snap."

"It's fine. I think you deserve some time to let everything out." Anzu felt like she was in a haze. Her old self was peeking though, trying to help the other woman. She didn't stop it.

"Yeah… Well, where should I start? Well, a year or so ago I packed up my Duel Deck and I decided to move on. I got a job as a waitress and things were going okay for a while. Or, so I thought." Her eyes widened as she stared past Anzu towards the door. "Oh, God."

"What?" Anzu murmured as she swiveled around in her chair. She felt her mouth go dry. Three thugs, all armed with crowbars, swaggered into the coffee house and walked straight towards Mai. She quickly turned back around to look at the other woman. "What's going on?"

"T-the one in the middle!" She stammered franticly. "That's the one w-who…"

Anzu understood immediately. She grasped the other's hand under the table trying to calm her down.

However, her efforts were not needed. The thugs stalked right past the two women, in favor of the men at a table near them.

Anzu quickly stood up and motioned for Mai to follow.

"Hey bastard, you owe us some money…"

Anzu quickly pushed Mai out of the door before the woman could hear the crack of metal against skull.

----

The two women had parted ways, both promising to call the other. Mai had asked Anzu to be there when the baby was born. Anzu agreed, because she knew Mai didn't have anyone else to be with her.

"We can go baby shopping together." Anzu had murmured.

Mai had smiled, hope shining in her eyes. "Yeah. I'd like that."

Anzu nodded. "Do you know what gender?" She had asked.

Mai's face fell at that point. "Yeah. It's a girl."

Anzu understood immediately, but Mai went on, "I hope she's a beautiful fool."(1)

Anzu didn't say anything, but she silently agreed. The baby's only hope was to be a little fool.

----

Anzu pulled the curtains shut to her apartment and slipped on her nightclothes. She brushed her teeth and turned on the television.

She sat down on her bed and flipped to the local news program. The newscaster was a woman, her pearly teeth glinting in the light and a crisp new suit ironed perfectly. The woman, her name – Diana Sedgwick – proudly displayed at the bottom of the screen, smiled and began to speak.

"In other news, the annual Duel Monsters competition has finally ended. Out of the one hundred-fifty competitors, only fifteen made it into the semi-finals and out of that number only five made it into the finals. Those competitors were Jounouchi Katsuya, Bakura Ryou, Ishtar Isis, Otogi Ryuuji, and the King of Games himself – Mutou Yuugi! Kaiba Seto announced the winner earlier…"

After each of their names were called, a picture of the duelist flashed on the screen. Anzu froze when she saw Yuugi's picture. She quickly turned the television off – she knew who had won the competition.

She flopped back on her bed, the spring cutting into her side once more. Resituating herself, she quickly fell into a restless sleep.

----

"Anzu, mon chéri, regard au lac! N'est-il pas simplement magnifique? Le coucher du soleil se reflète outre de lui admirablement!"

"Anzu, my darling, look…!"

"Enfant, se rappellent, même après que je suis allé, je sera toujours avec vous. Je toujours vous observerai et prendrai soin de vous. Ne vous inquiétez pas, mon enfant, pour moi suis toujours ici."

"…I am always here…"

"Rappelez-vous l'enfant, je suis toujours avec vous. Je suis toujours avec vous... que je suis toujours... "

"Remember child…"

'Je suis toujours avec vous... '

----

Anzu jerk up out of her sleep and a desperate sob escaped her throat.

"Mama…"

She struggled out of the sheets wrapped around her legs and stumbled to bathroom. She fumbled with the light switch for a moment before the light finally buzzed itself on. She turned on the water, sticking her hands beneath it even as it sputtered to release good water.

Anzu splashed the lukewarm water on her face, wincing when she realized she had a large bleeding cut on her face. She looked at her hands for the first time, her stomach repulsed at the red residue that the water had failed to completely rinse off.

She hurried back to her bed and let out a cry at the bloody spring. She must have moved around during her dream and caught her cheek on the spring. She quickly stripped the bed of the bloody sheets, wincing again as they got caught on the spring. She piled the dirty sheets in a corner and pulled a suitcase out of the closet.

"I can't take this anymore!" She all-but yelled, pulling her clothes out of the closet and drawers, getting her toiletries, and all her personal things and throwing them into her suitcase. "I've got to get out of here… got to get out of here…" She kept murmuring this under her breath like a mantra.

She zipped up the suitcase and left that month's rent on the table. She wrote a quick note to the landlord alerting him that she was leaving for good. She taped the note to the door and put the key under the doormat.

Taking one last look at the hell hole that she used to call home, she fled out the door into the cool night air.

She would call her father in the morning.

----

The hotel's red vacancy sign blinked forlornly. The 'e' and the 'l' had burnt out, and all was left was 'h-o-t.'

Anzu let out a sigh, and quietly made her way to the entrance of the decrepit hotel. Suddenly, she heard her name being called out.

"Anzu?"

She turned around and scanned the area for the person calling her voice. She faltered as she saw who it was – Kaiba Seto. Why was he on this side of town?

"Hello." She said politely.

Kaiba gave her an odd look. "What are you doing on this side of town?"

She shrugged, looking at the hotel. "I had an early midlife crisis." Anzu had never particularly gotten to know Kaiba Seto particularly well.

"Please tell me you're not going to stay at this shack." He muttered.

"That was the plan." She said back. "It's better than my old place, at any rate."

To her surprise, Kaiba didn't say anything negative to her. "Do you need a place to stay?"

Anzu's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Now, this was new. Since when, exactly, had Kaiba become so… nice? She hadn't been out of the scene that long. "I was planning on getting a room here for the night."

"Oh. I was going to offer you a room at the mansion, but if you already have plans…" He made to stalk off.

"N-no! Wait!" Since when had she stuttered? Oh yeah – since she needed a place to sleep. "I just need a couch to crash on," she finished, lamely.

He raised an eyebrow. "How about a room? You look like shit…" He murmured as an afterthought, eyes grazing over the wound on her cheek.

She let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, I do don't I?" She sobered up quickly.

Anzu Mazaki let out another grating laugh, wishing she had enough money to get piss drunk.

----

Anzu stared in awe at the Kaiba mansion for all of about two seconds. Moving her thought process on, she quickly thought back to Mai. Now that she had left her apartment, the phone number she gave the other woman was faulty.

She made a note to call Mai as soon as possible. First thing in the morning, right after she got up, she would call her.

Kaiba showed her to her room and pointed out the bathroom. After he had left she slipped out of her clothes and flopped on the spacious bed. Noticing a television by her bed, she reached over and flipped it on.

----

Anzu woke up to the sun hitting her face. She hadn't remembered falling asleep. The television was still on, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake humming over the speakers. She looked up, watching the ballerinas glide across the screen, jumping and turning gracefully.

Anzu stared at the screen, long and hard, and thought of what she had missed.

----

(1) This follows a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The lead female character hopes her unborn baby will be a beautiful little fool so she becomes oblivious to the degradation of women in that time period. Well, atleast, that's what I inferred from the book.

A/N: Hmm… this chapter turned out interesting. This wasn't where I was planning to take it, but I think this works too. It's also shorter than I'd like it to be, but I felt that I had kept those who have been following this story in the dark too long. But! I have a poll type thing for you readers. Which would you rather have: longer chapters or faster updates?

I can do either, but faster updates mean short chapters. Short means 1500 to 3000 words. Faster updates would also mean more chapters. Longer chapters means that the story wouldn't be updated as often, but they would be full of content and the story would probably have less chapters.

Therefore, it's up to you, tell me which you'd like and I'll go by popular vote.

Also, if you'd like to badger me further, my new email is


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